A GRIEVING daughter has called for better security at a Stockton cemetery after a family grave was vandalised for the second time.

Sylvia Taylor, 56, of Darlington, said she has been too upset to visit the grave of her parents, brother and sister since the latest damage at Oxbridge Cemetery.

The site was vandalised shortly after the grave of five-year-old murder victim Margaret Lowther was attacked last month.

Mrs Taylor said she knows of at least two other graves which have been targeted in the past few weeks.

She said that her parents' gravestone has two small statues of angels which were broken a few years ago.

After publicity, the statues were found with their wings broken off behind a shed in the Stockton area.

However the vandals have been back and the statues are broken again.

Mrs Taylor, who said her brother was buried with her parents, and that her sister's grave is adjacent to that grave, said: "The upset of it has been terrible.

"These are not children messing about but older people who are malicious thieves. It is not so bad now because the graves are insured but it is terrible that this can happen.

"I have spoken to two other people who have had similar problems and the Lowther grave is just round the corner from ours.

"I know at a cemetery in Hartlepool they have had CCTV cameras installed. I don't see why we couldn't have the same or at least proper security fencing.

"People use the cemetery as a short cut and as a park so perhaps they could close one of the entrances to cut that out.

"Something should be done to stop all this heartache."

The attack on Margaret Lowther's grave was reported in The Northern Echo last month.

A stone angel was knocked down, flowers ripped up and a night light broken.

The crime is being investigated by police.

A spokesman for Stockton Borough Council said: "Stockton police and the council's community wardens already patrol the cemetery as part of their usual routes.

"Bereavement Services will continue to work with these partners to ensure that vandalism remains a rare occurrence."